Non Sequitur

Remarkable tale of lost Australian book that turned up 66 years later in New York bookstore

A book called Magic Australia, presented by wounded WWII veteran to his little girl and then lost, has worked its magic across the globe and the decades to find its way back home to her.

Betty Fowkes’s father, George Wardley, gave her the book as a present when she was 11, lovingly inscribing it: “To Betty, from Daddy. Christmas 1944.” Betty, now an 80-year-old great-grandmother, believes she lost the book about four years later when the family moved out of their home in the Northcote suburb of Melbourne, Australia.

Sixty-six years later, Ms Fowkes heard the author, Nuri Mass, mentioned on a radio broadcast, and asked her daughter, Liz Crooks, to look up the book. “For some reason the name rang a bell in my addled brain,” she said. Ms Crooks started hunting for a copy online to give to her mum.

YouTube link.

Ms Crooks tracked down five first editions around the world. On further inspection through an American seller, New York’s Austin Book Shop, she realised it was the very same book originally given to her mother. It remains a mystery how the book found its way to a small bookstore in New York.

91-Year Old Woman Breaks Marathon Record

Harriette Thompson, 91, just completed a full marathon in San Diego. When she crossed the finish line after 7 hours, 7 minutes, and 42 seconds, she broke a record for the 90-94 age group. That's a pace of about 3.7 MPH. She smashed  the previous record, which was held by a 90-year old who completed the run in 8 hours, 53 minutes, and 8 seconds.
What's even more amazing is that Thompson did all of this after just completing cancer treatments. She still has radiation burns on her legs. She braved the 80°F heat anyway and completed her fifteenth marathon. And she's not done yet:

“If I’m still here next year, I think I’ll probably be able to train better and be in better shape,” Thompson said. “If I’m able, I’ll try again.”

Google Street View 'axe murder' solved

Officers from Police Scotland who were deployed to investigate an apparent murder in Edinburgh caught on Google Street View discovered the cold-blooded murderer and his lifeless victim were actually a pair of mischievous mechanics.

Garage boss and “murder victim” Dan Thompson, 56, who owns Tomson Motor Co in Giles Street, said he was “mortified” when uniformed officers turned up at the business to investigate reports of his death. Mr Thompson had lain on the road while his colleague Gary Kerr, a 31-year-old mechanic, stood over him with a pick axe handle after spotting the Google camera car from a distance.

However, a web user saw the images and police were alerted. Mr Thompson said: "By complete fluke I saw the Google car coming along the road but it had to loop the block so I had one minute to rush back inside the garage and set up the murder scene. There are pictures of men on Google flashing their bums but we thought we would be more classy.

"It seemed like the obvious thing to do so I threw myself on the ground and Gary grabbed a pick-axe handle from the garage. We had forgotten about it when the police arrived a year later. Two uniformed officers came down to the garage to interview us. They were treating it seriously at first – I was mortified because we didn’t want to waste police time. We explained to the police what we had done and they thought it was hilarious.”

Man attempting to simultaneously smoke cigarette and blow nose burned down house

A home in the community of Silver Valley in North Carolina was destroyed after officials say a house fire started when a man smoking a cigarette tried blowing his nose.

Officials said it happened at around 3am on Monday at a mobile home. Authorities said the tissue caught fire when the man smoking attempted to blow his nose.
He reportedly tried stomping it out, but couldn’t and the fire spread. Silver Valley fire officials said the home was fully involved by the time they arrived. A man and woman who lived there, both in their 60s, got out safety, officials said.
The fire was out by around 5am. The home is said to be a total loss. The fire marshall is investigating, although it is not said to be suspicious. The American Red Cross is assisting the victims.

Florida judge punches public defender

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Judge John Murphy. Do you want to fuck with Judge John Murphy? Public defender Andrew Weinstock did, and look what happened to him.

MURPHY: If I had a rock, I would throw it at you right now. Stop pissing me off! Just sit down! I’ll take care of it. I don’t need your help. Sit! Down!
WEINSTOCK I’m the public defender, I have the right to be here and I have a right to stand and represent my clients.
MURPHY: Sit down. If you want to fight, let’s go out back and I’ll just beat your ass.
WEINSTOCK: Let’s go right now.
They go outside
MURPHY: (shrieking) YOU WANNA FUCK WITH ME? DO YA?
Incomprehensible yelling

I know it's beyond cliché at this point, but ... Florida.

Judge tells attorney 'I'll beat your ass,' allegedly throws punches outside court 

Meet Slenderman ...

Two 12-year-old Wisconsin girls charged as adults in connection with stabbing of girl, 12 

The headline is striking in its own right, but the storyline was even more curious:

According to a criminal complaint, the girls had been planning to kill their friend for months and finally made the attempt in a park on Saturday morning, after a slumber party...

One of the girls told a detective they were trying to become "proxies" of Slender Man, a mythological demon-like character they learned about on creepypasta.wikia.com, a website about horror stories and legends. They planned to run away to the demon's forest mansion after the slaying, the complaint said...

The other girl said she sees Slender Man in her dreams. She said he watches her and can read her mind and teleport.

Basic information about Slenderman can be found  at Wikipedia, and also at What Culture:

Of course when Victor Surge first created him, he was just a creepy picture with minimal back story. Now he is a cultural phenomenon and terrorises the dreams and thoughts of many...  Now he has become a part of internet pop-culture. A tall man that lurks in the shadows with a blank face and dressed in a suit...

Myths are important to us and fundamental to our society. We always have to feel like there is something bigger than us, something unexplained. This is called “The Big Other’. It can manifest into religion, aliens, conspiracy theories, unexplained phenomenon and creatures... 

Being the complex creatures we are, we have started creating our own myths. We know Slenderman is fake. We know he isn’t standing behind us now right now. But I bet after an episode of Marble Hornets or playing a game of Slender, you still double check. As scary as you might or might not find him, you want  him to exist. We want our world to be a mystery and bigger than us. We need it to be. We need Slenderman.

Rock throwing lady with walking frame pepper sprayed by police

A lady with a walking frame was pepper sprayed by police after allegedly attacking her carer in Alice Springs, Australia on Sunday afternoon. A concerned citizen watched the indigenous woman, described as in her 50s or 60s fall to the ground in Gillen at about 2.30pm.

The witness believed the woman had been Tasered by police, but Alice Springs Watch Commander Siiri Tennosaar denied those claims. The witness said the woman was shaking and convulsing on the ground after “being Tasered”. “She was drooling out of her mouth - they could’ve killed her,” the witness said. “It was pretty brutal, really overkill.”

She was loaded into the back of the paddywagon until an ambulance arrived to transport her to Alice Springs Hospital (ASH). St John Ambulance Operation Manager Craig Garraway said he believes the woman had an altercation with a carer, and that she was carrying weapons. “I think she had knives - I’m not 100 per cent sure but police taking the action they took, she must have had weapons of some sort,” he said.
“She was throwing rocks, police tried to subdue her.” Mr Garraway did not believe her walking frame was the weapon in question. He said there was nothing wrong with her apart from a pre-existing medical condition, but she was transported to ASH for examination. Watch Commander Tennosaar refused to release a statement as it was a mental health matter.

Man allegedly lost wife in gamble over bottle of booze

Authorities in Bihar, eastern India, are flummoxed after a man allegedly lost his wife in a gamble for a bottle of alcohol.

The saga came to light after the woman contacted a women's helpline over the weekend. She told the authorities how a man had been calling her on her cell phone claiming that he was her new husband. The victim is a resident of Bihta town in Patna district.

“She [the victim] told us how a local man had been calling her on her mobile [phone] for some time claiming to be her new husband and threatening her with dire consequences if she did not talk properly with him whenever he called her,” the women's helpline project director Pramila Kumari said on Monday.
She added that an investigation had been ordered into the case. She also sought legal action against the accused if the incident was found to be true. The caller also informed her that her husband is a drunkard who always assaults her while under the influence of alcohol.

Bride and groom spent wedding night in cells after row with hotel staff

A bride and groom were still in their formal dress when they were held and taken to a police station after a fracas at the Hilton Hotel in Deansgate, Manchester. Officers were called to the hotel shortly before 11.30pm on Saturday night.

The couple became involved in a row with hotel staff as they tried to check in, and police were called. The groom, aged 25, was accused of attacking a security guard, cutting his face. The bride was accused of shouting racist abuse at the guards, who were Asian.

The groom was arrested on suspicion of a section 47 assault, with his 29-year-old wife being held on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offense. They were taken to a local police station where they were kept in separate cells, just a few yards apart, overnight. Nick Adderley, Chief Superintendent of Greater Manchester Police's North Division, said they were later bailed to a date to be arranged.
He said: "Police officers were asked to attend and we did so. We had to consider whether it was the right thing to do to arrest, but it absolutely was and I support the officers who made that decision. We can't have a situation where, regardless of what ceremony they have been to, people are being allegedly assaulted and racially abused."

Ziggy

Jacques Cousteau's grandson Fabien plans month underwater

Fabien Cousteau, grandson of Jacques, is planning to spend 31 days underwater, beating his grandfather's record by one day while also celebrating Jacques Cousteau's research.
From NPR:

The underwater lab that's serving as the team's temporary home is called Aquarius Reef Base. The 81-ton steel structure is located 63 feet beneath the water's surface, according to the Mission 31 website. At that depth, Reuters reports, the water pressure is almost three times the pressure at the surface....
According to CNET, Cousteau will be accompanied by two technicians, who will be staying with him for the duration of the project. Two cameramen and four scientists also will be involved, but the lab only has room for three of them at a time; they will swap out halfway through.
The scientists will be observing the effects of climate change and pollution on the reefs around the Florida Keys. While the length of their stay is a bit of a publicity stunt, the ability to spend days or weeks underwater does have real value to scientists...

"Jacques Cousteau's Grandson Plans To Spend A Month Underwater"

9 Famous Geniuses Who Were Also Huge Coffee Addicts

Are you a coffee addict? If you suspect that you're going overboard with your coffee addiction, you're certainly not alone. In fact, some of the most successful and acclaimed human beings to ever walk the planet were totally, sometimes painfully, nuts for coffee.

10 Facial Reconstructions Of Famous Historical Figures

Why look at a painting of a historical figure when you can come face to face with one? Forensic facial reconstruction using scans of skeletal remains allows researchers to create 3D models of the face through a combination of science, history, and artistic interpretation.
The results may be somewhat subjective, but they're fascinating anyway. Here are 10 facial reconstructions of famous people.

Richard III was not a hunchback

YouTube link.

The last Plantagenet king did have significant mid-thoracic adolescent-onset idiopathic scoliosis, but not enough to generate a "hump," as the video explains.
The attribution of a hunchback deformity is of course a legacy of pro-Tudor biases incorporated in Edward deVere's famous eponymous 16th-century play, in which Richard is described as a hunchback who is "rudely stamp'd," "deformed, unfinish'd."
Further information at Medievalists, where you can view a 3-D reconstruction of the spine.

Jem, The Truly Outrageous, Triple-Platinum '80s Rocker Who Nearly Took Down Barbie

Jem, the '80s girl-power cartoon rocker, is staging a comeback, via a new film - and unfortunately, male Hollywood studio execs may ruin her. Collectors Weekly looked into the real story of the beloved '80s icon, how she was born out of a drive to sell fashion dolls, and how Barbie thwarted her ascent to superstardom.

Random Photos

The Terraced Cemetery Of Pok Fu Lam

The private cemetery on Pok Fu Lam on the western side of Hong Kong island is an amazing sight. Built into the mountainside in terraced steps and interconnected with staircases, the cemetery resembles a giant outdoor amphitheater.
The Pok Fu Lam Cemetery was built in 1882. It was built from the higher contours and as the cemetery grew, it was expanded downwards towards Victoria Road. Today, a part of the cemetery lies beyond Victoria Road.

Brace for Record Heat as El Nino Approaches

Brace for Record Heat as El Nino Approaches

Even a weak El Nino could hike global temperatures to record levels this year and into 2015

Why do hurricanes with female names have a higher death count?

Ed Yong has a great critique of the recent paper that suggests it's because latent sexism leaves us assuming lady hurricanes will be kinder and gentler. In it, he mentions an alternate answer to the above question that made me smile in its simplicity.

For a start, they analysed hurricane data from 1950, but hurricanes all had female names at first. They only started getting male names on alternate years in 1979. This matters because hurricanes have also, on average, been getting less deadly over time. “It could be that more people die in female-named hurricanes, simply because more people died in hurricanes on average before they started getting male names,” says Lazo.

Plastiglomerate

New Rock Forms from Our Trash: Plastiglomerate

The new substance will forever remain in Earth's rock record, researchers say.

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Yes, The Death Star Was an Engineering Failure, But Not the Only One

(Abstruse Goose)

The engineers of the Death Star get a lot of criticism for designing a moon-sized battleship that can be destroyed with a single shot in one vulnerable spot (assuming that you believe the official story). Many members of the design team have been unable to find professional employment and several have been sued into bankruptcy. This is largely because of a public misunderstanding of the nature of engineering on a project the scale of a Death Star.

Abstruse Goose makes an important point: every complex system, including the male human body, has vulnerabilities. Human testicles are outside of the body for an important reason: to keep sperm cells cool enough to remain viable. The Death Star had an exhaust port for a similar reason: to keep the station cool enough to remain operational within tolerances.
The Death Star was properly designed. It just wasn't properly defended.

Daily Comic Relief

Hubble Adds Ultraviolet to Epic Ultra-Deep Cosmic View

Hubble Adds Ultraviolet to Epic Ultra-Deep Cosmic View

Astronomers have added an ultraviolet perspective to an ultra-deep field view of the universe taken by the Hubble Space Telescope over the past decade.

The Legend of the Devil Dog

Archeologists, digging in ruins of Leiston Abbey, Suffolk, UK, found the bones of dog buried 20 inches deep. The dog would have been around 200 pounds and could have been seven feet tall standing on its hind legs! It’s very possible that it was a reverent burial of a beloved pet, but then again, the grave could be associated with the legend of Black Shuck, a hellhound or demon dog. 

Black Shuck, Old Shuck, Old Shock, or Shuck is the name given to a medieval hellhound in England. This devil dog was said to have black fur, flaming eyes, sharp teeth and claws, and great strength. Locals described sightings of Black Shuck in graveyards, forests, and roadsides. Shuck’s most famous attack happened on August 4, 1577 at two churches in Blythburgh and Bungay in the English countryside.

During a storm on August 4, 1577, Black Shuck reportedly broke through the doors of Holy Trinity Church in Blythburgh, about seven miles from Leiston Abbey, and charged through a large congregation. It was during this attack that he allegedly killed a man and a boy, before the church steeple collapsed through the roof. As the hellhound departed, he left claw marks on the north door of Holy Trinity Church that are supposedly still visible today.

Black Shuck is not the only devil dog in European legend. Read about others at Atlas Obscura.

Police officers came to stretcher dog to safety after he got sore paws while on a hike

Fin, a 9-year-old lab mix and his owner Julia Jones had an adventure on Friday afternoon. “We took the dogs because we weren’t going to go on a crazy hike or anything,” Jones said. Jones and a friend went for a hike in the Sandia Mountains, near Albuquerque in New Mexico. When they were on their way back down, Jones says Fin wasn’t acting like himself. “I noticed that he started limping a little bit,” Jones said.

About three miles from the car, they kept pushing. “I took off my socks and put them on him and they didn’t really stay but I tried,” Jones said. It didn’t take long for Fin to give in. “I looked at his paws and the skin was completely ripped off of them,” Jones said. “He just laid down under a tree and wouldn’t come out.” Jones says they tried moving him, but the 90 pound dog was too heavy in the heat of the day. “I tried to carry him,” Jones said. “I tried to carry him and I couldn’t do it.” So she tried calling some friends and animal humane, but no one picked up. The city said they couldn’t do anything.

“So, I thought we’ll call the police,” Jones said. By using the GPS signal from Jones’ cell phone, Open Space officers with Albuquerque Police came to the rescue. “They gave the dog water and medical attention, put the dog on the stretcher and walked the dog back down to the campsite,” Officer Simon Drobik said. “They came out and rescued us,” Jones said. “I mean, they rescued him!” Fin was so tired, he didn’t even flinch once he was on that stretcher. “Open Space officers are highly trained for those types of rescues, animal rescues or human rescues,” Drobik said.

YouTube link.

Fin is back at home now, the vet saying he’ll need to rest for about a week. “Thank you so, so much from the bottom of my heart,” Jones said to APD. “My dog is my baby and I didn’t know what was going to happen.” Jones says she and Fin have done that hike plenty of times before. She says if they do decide to go out again, she’s going to buy him some hiking boots of his own. Police say if you do venture out to explore the Sandias or other areas, take plenty of water and make sure you have a cell phone. They say without the GPS coordinates, this would’ve been a much tougher rescue.

Puppy drove car into pond

Rosie, a three-month-old German shepherd puppy is being blamed for driving a family car into a Massachusetts pond. Rosie's owner, John Costello, said he took her for a walk around Bolivar Pond in Canton on Sunday, then got into the car and started it in preparation for the ride home. That’s when the puppy jumped in with him.

"The dog jumped in and hit the gear shift and the car jerked and she fell on top of the gas pedal," Costello said. "It was just scary." Then, he said, his puppy drove the car into the pond. "The car went for a swim. We all did." "When the car first went into the water, I jumped out to grab the dog and she jumped into the back seat," Costello said. And that's when Eric Hermann, who was working nearby, rushed to help. "It was about 30 feet out the car," Hermann said.

"Puppy was scared and ran to the back seat. The front door was open, [we were] trying to get him out the front door, coax him." Hermann, Costello and another man all swam to save Rosie. "I just leaped in and grabbed the dog and pulled her out and we both fell back into the water," said Costello. The water level soon rose to be over Hermann's head. "By the time we got the puppy out, the car had slid and we had to do a little swimming," he said.

YouTube link.

But they all made it safely to shore in the end. "I'm glad they were there cause if they weren't there, I don't know what I would have done," Costello said. The 911 call even surprised Canton police. "I've never heard of a puppy driving a car into a pond," said Officer Robert Quirk of the Canton police. Both the Canton police and fire departments arrived at the pond to help out, and remove the car from the water. Costello says the car, which is his his daughter's, is a total a loss, but he says he has insurance. As for Rosie, she's okay, and unaware of all the commotion she caused.

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

Good to know ...!

 

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Old Maid indeed... !

Today  is  - Old Maid Day

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Today in History

1070		Roqueford cheese is accidentally discovered in a cave near Roqueford, France, when a sheperd finds a lunch he had forgotten several days before.
1615		The fortress at Osaka, Japan, falls to Shogun Leyasu after a six-month siege.
1647		Parliamentary forces capture King Charles I and hold him prisoner.
1717		The Freemasons are founded in London.
1792		Captain George Vancouver claims Puget Sound for Britain.
1794		British troops capture Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
1805		Tripoli is forced to conclude peace with the United States after a conflict over tribute.
1859		The French army, under Napoleon III, takes Magenta from the Austrian army.
1864		Confederates under General Joseph Johnston retreat to the mountains in Georgia.
1911		Gold is discovered in Alaska's Indian Creek.
1918		French and American troops halt Germany's offensive at Chateau-Thierry, France.
1919		The U.S. Senate passes the Women's Suffrage bill.
1940		British complete the evacuation of 300,000 troops at Dunkirk.
1943		In Argentina, Juan Peron takes part in the military coup that overthrows Ramon S. Castillo.
1944		The U-505 becomes the first enemy submarine captured by the U.S. Navy.
1944		Allied troops liberate Rome.
1946		Juan Peron is installed as Argentina's president.
1953		North Korea accepts the United Nations proposals in all major respects.
1960		The Taiwan island of Quemoy is hit by 500 artillery shells fired from the coast of Communist China.
1972		Black activist Angela Davis is found not guilty of murder, kidnapping, and criminal conspiracy.

Non Sequitur

Speaking 2 languages benefits the brain

Speaking 2 languages benefits the aging brain

New research reveals that bilingualism has a positive effect on […]

A single DNA tweak leads to blond hair

A single DNA tweak leads to blond hair

A single-letter change in the genetic code is enough to […]

13 Accidental Inventions That Changed The World

Necessity isn't always the mother of invention. Lots of the things we rely on to cure our diseases, cook our meals, and sweeten our days weren't deliberately designed.

Instead, they were a happy accident. Some society-shaping inventions - from Coca-Cola to penicillin and the microwave oven - came about by chance.

The Science Of Bubbles

Bubbles may seem pretty ordinary. We tend to think of them just as beverage enhancers or entertainment for small children. But scientists are uncovering another side to bubbles: They can perform computations, drive climate, and even act as weapons.
In celebration of summer, the unofficial season of the bubble, here's a glimpse into the hidden world of this common, albeit little understood, form.

Jeffrey Hudson: The Queen’s Dwarf

The adventure-filled life of Jeffrey Hudson. Here's the long and the short of it. (Okay, mostly the short.)

Jeffrey Hudson was born, ironically, in the smallest county in England -Rutland County- on June 14, 1619. His father worked as a butcher, a not very well-paying position in those days. Mr. and Mrs. Hudson were both of ordinary stature, as were all their other children, which included three boys and a girl.

A GROWING CONCERN

As Jeffrey grew older, though, he simply didn’t grow. At the age of seven, in fact, he stood a mere 18 inches tall. Jeffrey probably suffered from a condition common to dwarfs called hypopituitarism, a growth hormone deficiency in the pituitary gland. In every other respect, Jeffrey was quite normal; he was healthy, intelligent, and quite good-looking. He could have ended up spending most of his life as a sideshow in a local fair. But fate had something else in store.


FROM RAGS TO SILK BRITCHES

Everyone was curious about him, including the Duchess of Buckingham, whose husband was the best friend and principle advisor of King Charles I (1625-1649). At the request of the duchess, Jeffrey’s parents dressed their son in his best Sunday clothes (such as they were), marched him the mile or so up the hill to the duchess’s mansion, and handed him over. From then on, Jeffrey would be dressed in velvets, silks, and satins, with two servants to attend his every need. He would still be on display, the subject of laughter and curiosity- but there was a big difference between dancing for a duchess and performing in front of the local yokels at the county fair.

MOVE OVER, PILLSBURY DOUGHBOY!

In early November 1626, the duke threw a series of lavish banquets at his palatial home in London, including one for King Charles and his queen, Henrietta Maria. Only the finest food in the land was served, and all the guests were showered with gifts. Such fancy soirees called for culinary special effects: At the appointed hour, servants carried a huge, glistening pie to the royal table and set it down before the queen. Then, right on cue, a hand, then an arm, broke through the crust -followed by a small face peering out from beneath a shiny helmet. Finally, a tiny figure dressed in a miniature suit of armor emerged. It was Jeffrey Hudson.

THE QUEEN’S PET PROJECT

The queen took Jeffrey under her wing. The royal marriage wasn’t going very well; young Henrietta Maria -the sister of Louis XII, king of France- felt isolated and alone. And in a country that was largely Anglican, her passionate devotion to the Catholic faith only increased that sense of foreignness and isolation. So Henrietta Maria turned to her pets. To her menagerie of monkeys, dogs, and birds, she could now add her her own little pet human, Jeffrey Hudson, who thereafter was known as the Queen’s Dwarf.
FROM BAD TO NURSE

The queen had already lost one child shortly after childbirth; so when she became pregnant the second time, an expedition was mounted to find the finest nurse in all of France, Madame Peronne, to tend to the queen. Jeffrey had been included. So on March 18, 1630, he and Madame Peronne set sail from Calais. A few hours after leaving port, the ship was taken over by pirates. But after a few days, realizing that the group they’d snatched was probably too hot to handle, the pirates released their captives and sent them on their way.
A DECADE OF DECADENCE 

The decade starting in 1631 was surely the happiest time of Hudson’s life. He was the hit of every social occasion; this was not just because of his curiosity value, but because of his wit, humor, and charm. He learned some new skills that were expected of young men at court, including shooting a pistol, riding, playing cards, and dancing. But while Jeffrey and his fellow courtiers were playing games inside the walls of the palace, some deadly serious games were being played outside of them. The Puritans in Parliament continued to grumble about the lavish spending of the monarchy and the high taxes that King Charles I continued to impose.

SEA-SICK AND TIRED

By 1641, the royal treasury was tapped out, and the desperate king was forced to reconvene the Parliament he had dismissed in 1629. The next January, Henrietta Maria, Jeffrey, and the rest of the king’s court fled London, through an angry crowd of Puritan sympathizers, and set sail for Holland.

The ship ran smack into a huge storm, which the queen and her entourage barely managed to survive. They finally reached Holland on March 1, 1642. On the return trip -nearly a year later, in what was becoming a depressingly familiar routine for poor Jeffrey- a huge storm hit the queen’s convoy as soon as they lost sight of land. Several ships were lost in the storm, but the queen and Jeffrey managed to make it back to the Dutch coast.

NIGHTIE NIGHT

Back in Holland, the queen quickly raised more money and supplies, and she replaced the ships that had been lost in the storm. A year later, they sailed again for England, making it without a hitch. This time the trouble began after they landed, when the fishing village where they were staying overnight was bombarded by parliamentary ships. Dressed only in their nightgowns, the queen and her attendants were forced to flee their quarters. Meanwhile Jeffrey, armed with sword and pistol, joined the other male members of the queen’s household down by the landing area, ready to repel the queen’s enemies. At dawn, the tide carried the attacking ships out of range and the firing ceased.

NO HORSING AROUND

Henrietta Maria rewarded Jeffrey for his loyalty and bravery by conferring upon him the honorary title Captain of Horse. But by the summer of 1644, with the war against the parliamentary forces not going well at all, the queen and the royal entourage boarded a fleet of Dutch ships and hightailed it for France. Not surprisingly, they proceeded to run right into -yep, you guessed it!- another storm.

GO AHEAD, MAKE MY DAY

Henrietta Maria and company eventually made it to France. Once they had settled in they were joined by Williams Crofts, the queen’s Master of Horse, and several of the courts “young blades,” aristocratic hangers-on whose principle occupation was hanging around the local saloons and getting sloshed. Once again, Jeffrey found himself the easy butt of cruel jokes. The now 25-year-old Captain Hudson let it be known that the next person who insulted him would be challenged to a duel.

THE LITTLE SQUIRT

The final straw was an insult delivered by young Charles Crofts, brother of the aforementioned William. A duel was arranged, though, in all likelihood, no one -with the exception of Jeffrey Hudson- took it seriously. When the combatants were asked to choose their weapons, Crofts produced the 17th-century equivalent of a squirt gun (it was actually called a “squirt”), a large syringe that served in those days as a fire extinguisher. This apparently produced more than a few chuckles among the spectators. But in Jeffrey’s mind, the time for jokes was over. The water pistol was put aside. The two duelists, 100 paces apart, faced each other on horseback. The horses charged, and when they were only a few yards apart, Jeffrey Hudson leveled his pistol and shot Crofts through the head. He died at the scene.

THIS LITTLE JEFFREY WENT TO MARKET

Though it’s not clear exactly why, Jeffrey was banished from court (the queen may have been trying to protect Jeffrey, but there’s also the factor that dueling was in disfavor at that moment in France).

In October 1644, Hudson packed up his things and left France. By ship. (Oh no! Oh, yes.) Not long out of port, Jeffrey’s ship was boarded by Turkish corsairs, the dreaded Barbary pirates. Jeffrey was most likely taken to one of the slave-trade centers -Algiers, Tunis, or Tripoli- on the Barbary Coast, the group of North African states ruled by the Ottoman Turks. After their capture, slaves were taken down to a central market where they were put up for auction.

REACHING NEW HEIGHTS

Once a slave, it’s likely that Hudson received his fair share of physical abuse. Along with a new regime of physical labor, his diet underwent a radical change: from rich, refined foods to much simpler fare, which would have been something like black bread and vinegar. It may have been this combination of extreme changes in his daily existence that brought about the most remarkable of changes: Jeffrey actually began to grow! Right after reaching the age of 30, he shot up from around two feet in height to three feet and nine inches (a little more than one meter).

LUCKLESS IN LONDON

Beginning in the mid-1660s, England made concerted efforts to buy back its citizens from the Barbary pirates. After nearly 25 years in slavery, Jeffrey Hudson finally obtained his freedom. He returned home to live with his only surviving brother, Samuel. In 1678, after seven or eight years living the quiet life, he decided to return to London. But anti-Catholic riots had broken out there, and his close identification with the fervently Catholic Henrietta Maria made him an easy target for the mob. He was thrown in prison and clapped in irons, with nothing to sleep on but boards. No heat was provided duing the cold, damp English winters.

LARGER THAN LIFE

Jeffrey was released from prison in 1680, a tired and broken old man. His former connections at court helped him snag a little money from Henrietta Maria’s son, King Charles II, who must have taken pity on the Queen’s Dwarf. It is believed that Jeffrey died in the second half of 1681, but the exact date and place are unknown. There’s no record of his final days. But in all probability, Jeffrey Hudson, a proud and adventurous spirit, died impoverished and alone.

Man who escaped from police on floating log found hiding under a blanket in cupboard

A wanted man who police say fled from them early last week by jumping into the Etowah River in Canton, Georgia, and floated downstream on a log, has resurfaced. Terry Raymond Spriggs was found hiding in a clothes closet at a home in Woodstock and arrested late on Wednesday night, after sailing away from police on May 19, said Phil Price, commander of the Cherokee Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad.

“We knew he would turn back up. Just a matter of time,” Price said. “Our main concern was he made it abundantly clear to us that he would be willing to run and do what it took to get away.” CMANS agents searched the house at about 10pm after following Spriggs, wanted on drug and probation violation charges, from another home a few miles away. The home belongs to acquaintances of Spriggs, a family with three children, Price said. Agents and sheriff’s deputies helped the family out of the house and went in to find Spriggs, 42, of Canton. “Spriggs was discovered hiding in a clothes closet, covered with a blanket,” Price said.
Wednesday nights’ arrest was the end of a week and a half of authorities searching for the suspect, though Price has been candid Spriggs wasn’t a highly-sought fugitive because his charges weren’t especially serious. It started on May 19 when agents with CMANS, a countywide collaborative drug task force, spotted Spriggs at his mother’s house and recognized him as a man with warrants. Police at the time said a chase ensued, and the suspect jumped into the Etowah and hugged a floating log, riding it for about a quarter of a mile before police lost sight of him.  Price said agents later learned, as they suspected last week, Spriggs had got out of the river quickly and fled.
At the time, though, local officers called in the Georgia State Patrol to fly a helicopter over the river to make sure the suspect wasn’t hung on brush or in any physical danger. In spite of the search the suspect has put police through, Price said he doesn’t expect any charges relating to his elusiveness. “Frankly, that’s sort of piling on,” the commander said. “You don’t really want to pile on charges (because) somebody’s a thorn in your side.” The suspect did get an additional charge out of Wednesday night’s event, though; Price said he was charged with theft by receiving for the stolen motorcycle he was riding before police arrested him. Spriggs is being held without bond at the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center.

Machete-wielding woman airlifted to hospital after relative ran over her foot with lawn mower

A dispute between family members in Vigo County led to a woman being airlifted to an Indianapolis hospital on Friday afternoon. The Vigo County Sheriff's Department says deputies were called at around 4:45pm and found a 59-year-old woman with severe injuries to her foot.

The woman and her 91-year-old male relative have been involved in a longtime property dispute. Witnesses told deputies that just after 4:30pm, the woman was upset and drove her Jeep through the man's yard causing damage to the yard. The man, who was on a mower at the time, confronted the woman in the driveway.
An argument ensued and the woman got out of the Jeep carrying a machete. The man quickly turned the mower, causing the mower to run over the woman's lower leg which resulted in a severe injury to her foot. Neighbors called 911 and the woman was airlifted to IU Health Methodist Hospital in critical condition.
The Sheriff's Department says detectives interviewed the man but were unable to interview the woman due to her condition. Once detectives complete their investigation, the case will be turned over to the Vigo County Prosecutor's Office to determine if charges will be filed.
There's a short news video here.

Man charged for making bomb threat after not getting a sandwich

A Wisconsin man faces a bomb scare charge for not getting a sandwich.

23-year-old Thomas Rupnik is accused of making the threat at the Sheboygan Senior Community Center on Thursday.
According to the criminal complaint, Rupnik entered the building and asked for some food. When staff turned him down, he left for a few minutes but returned and made the threat to make a bomb and blow up the building.
Sheboygan Police made contact with him at his residence and he admitted to making the threat. Rupnik now faces up to three-and-a-half year in prison if found guilty of the felony.